The traditional model of television and video content presentation uses a single information stream that communicates video and often synchronized audio signals to a monitor that converts the received video and audio signals for presentation to a passive viewer. Under this model, the passive viewer has no control or interaction with the video content being received and observed.
Presently available analog and digital recorders provide some improvement in that viewers can record broadcast content for viewing at some later time. Generally, as described above with conventional video content presentation, a viewer with a recorder is still a passive viewer as the viewer has no control or interaction with the video content that has been recorded. A viewer with a recorder is limited to controlling the time and the flow of the recorded video information. That is, a viewer can enable control inputs associated with the recorder to play, pause, fast forward, skip or reverse. These controls essentially provide the passive viewer only one choice for a particular segment of recorded video information: the viewer can either see the underlying video content (albeit at a controllable rate and time), or skip one or more portions of the recorded video content.
With continuing development of data networks and methods for delivering live and pre-recorded video presentations to end users, and parallel development of computerized information systems, such as the Internet and the associated World Wide Web (WWW), there have been concerted efforts to integrate various systems to provide enhanced information delivery and entertainment systems. For example, developers are introducing integrated systems combining TVs with computer subsystems, so a TV may be used as a Web browser, or a personal computer may be used for enhanced TV viewing.
In some systems, computer elements, such as a microprocessor, memory, and the like, are built into the familiar chassis of a TV set. In such an integrated system, the TV screen becomes the display monitor when the system is operating in a computer mode. In such a system, conventional TV elements and circuitry are incorporated along with the computer elements, and capability is provided for a user to switch modes, or to view recorded or broadcast video with added computer interaction. One may thus, with a properly equipped system, select to view analog TV programs, digital TV programs, cable TV, satellite TV, and pay TV from multiple signal sources and various pages available via the WWW. These capabilities are often integrated into a single display, that is, one may view a broadcast presentation and also have a window on the display for Web interaction.
Despite the development of these integrated entertainment systems further improvements are desired, especially in the development of systems and methods that involve the user in an extension of the viewing and or listening experience. Thus, there is still a need for improved approaches for integrating the user in entertainment systems.